{"id":311320,"date":"2026-01-30T09:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T09:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/311320\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T09:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T09:46:09","slug":"im-doing-exactly-what-i-dreamed-of-doing-when-i-was-a-kid-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/311320\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I\u2019m doing exactly what I dreamed of doing when I was a kid\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

In person, Aisling Franciosi<\/a> couldn\u2019t be more funny and charming. On screen, she\u2019s a very different entity. The Dublin-born actor has, since her earliest roles, brought a fierce energy, both emotional and physical, to traumatic material. <\/p>\n

From the historical brutality of Jennifer Kent\u2019s The Nightingale<\/a> to the dark, Dracula<\/a>-inspired tensions of The Last Voyage of the Demeter, her work has consistently excavated the extremities of human experience. <\/p>\n

In her new film, James Sweeney\u2019s Sundance<\/a> rave Twinless, Franciosi occupies a different register, adding warmth and understated comedic flair to Marcie, an affable secretary whose lightness serves as a counterpoint to the grief and cynicism around her.<\/p>\n

For Franciosi, Twinless was an unexpected and pleasing departure from the grim roles for which she has become known.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember reading it very clearly,\u201d she says. \u201cI was actually skiing when I was sent the script, and I had to let them know pretty quickly whether I wanted to meet for it or not. So I\u2019d ski down as fast as I could, stop, read a bit more, then ski again. <\/p>\n

\u201cI did the worst skiing of my life, genuinely, because I was so distracted trying to get through this amazing script.\u201d <\/p>\n

Twinless deserves its early acclaim. The film\u2019s director and writer plays Dennis, a self-conscious, tart-tongued gay man who falls in with Roman (the charismatic Dylan O\u2019Brien), an angry, straight loner, at a bereavement group for people who have lost a twin. Together they form an odd but firm friendship. <\/p>\n

Franciosi is on top form as Marcie, a workmate of Dennis whose optimism and emotional openness constantly unsettle him. When an attraction develops between her and Roman, Dennis becomes increasingly involved in \u2013 and threatened by \u2013 their relationship. And that\u2019s all before Marcie rumbles Dennis\u2019s terrible secret.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt first Marcie might not seem like the brightest person in the room,\u201d Franciosi says. \u201cBut then she surprises you. She\u2019s not just the dumb love interest, and James was very conscious of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Twinless:Twinless: Dylan O’Brien, Aisling Franciosi and James Sweeney in Sweeney’s film. Photograph: Roadside Attractions <\/p>\n

As Franciosi notes, it\u2019s vanishingly unlikely that Sweeney watched the violent rape-revenge cycle of The Nightingale and thought, she\u2019d be perfect for Twinless.<\/p>\n

\u201cFair play to James, because he really had nothing to go on,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was a really lovely and unexpected surprise to even be considered for it. I\u2019d never been asked to do comedy before, so I needed that reassurance myself. I wanted to feel confident going into it, not like I was blagging my way through something people assumed I couldn\u2019t do.\u201d <\/p>\n

Working opposite Sweeney was a revelation. Shifting between both sides of the camera, the film-maker and his star fashioned a collaborative experience. <\/p>\n

\u201cI honestly don\u2019t know how James did it,\u201d she says. \u201cHe was wearing so many hats, and I don\u2019t know how I\u2019d even begin to organise my brain like that. But from my side I really loved it. I love working with writer-directors because there\u2019s such clarity. There\u2019s no missing step in communication. They wrote the thing. They know exactly what they need.\u201d<\/p>\n

For The Nightingale, her international breakthrough, from 2018, Franciosi prepared for more than nine months, researching colonial horrors, sexual violence and mental trauma. Kent\u2019s follow-up to The Babadook is set in 1825 on the British penal colony of Van Diemen\u2019s Land (now Tasmania). <\/p>\n

The film studies Franciosi\u2019s young Irish convict as, following an act of appalling violence against her and her family, she takes brutal revenge on the occupying British forces. Franciosi worked with a clinical psychologist and met survivors and social workers. A psychologist was on set for especially taxing scenes.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Nightingale: Aisling Franciosi in Jennifer Kent’s film <\/p>\n

\u201cThe material was obviously sensitive and very difficult,\u201d Franciosi says. \u201cBy the time it went out into the world I was strangely at peace with it. Because it had literally everything from me. It was blood, sweat and tears. Even though I was so drained at the end of it, I knew I couldn\u2019t have done anything more. I couldn\u2019t have done anything differently. I gave it everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Born in Dublin in 1993, Franciosi is the daughter of an Irish mother, from Meath, and an Italian father, from Milan, a heart surgeon. She spent her early years, before her parents\u2019 divorce, in Italy; then Franciosi and her siblings returned to Dublin with their mother. Italy remained a frequent holiday destination, and she continues to visit her dad in Milan. <\/p>\n

Franciosi\u2019s linguistic duality as a native speaker of both English and Italian (on top of which she also studied French and Spanish at Trinity College Dublin) has informed both her performance style and her sense of identity.<\/p>\n

\u201cLanguage changes you physically,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen I speak Italian I move differently. I use hand gestures. I have friends who say I\u2019m a different person speaking Italian. The cultures aren\u2019t wildly different, but the subtleties matter. There are words in Italian that just encapsulate something perfectly, so I\u2019ll use them with my mum, because English doesn\u2019t quite get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Franciosi went to her first drama class at the age of six. There was no turning back.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was always a bit of a goody two-shoes,\u201d she says. \u201cI was very well behaved. I always had a sensible head on my shoulders. I loved the idea of, \u2018Oh, wait, when you do this you can say and do things that you would never do in real life.\u2019 <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s stayed with me. I definitely play a lot of characters who are stuck in negative emotions. It\u2019s so cathartic to play someone who is screaming into the void or having a breakdown.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"GameGame of Thrones: Wilf Scolding, Aisling Franciosi and Tom Chadbon (2011) <\/p>\n

Franciosi\u2019s screen career began with smaller parts, including a portrayal of a young Lyanna Stark in Game of Thrones<\/a>, and a well-regarded stint in the RT\u00c9-BBC crime drama The Fall<\/a>, in which she played Katie Benedetto, from 2013 to 2016. She subsequently appeared in the TNT series Legends and made her big-screen debut in the Ken Loach<\/a> film Jimmy\u2019s Hall.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had done one job as an extra before The Fall,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd then I was on set with Ken Loach. I\u2019ve definitely been spoiled. And then The Nightingale. It\u2019s difficult not to compare any other kind of role after that. That\u2019s something I\u2019ve been working on the last few years. I think I had notions. That every role had to matter. And now I think it\u2019s okay to do something that\u2019s just fun and entertaining.\u201d<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t mean she\u2019s hoping to break into franchises any time soon. The film section of her CV is still characterised by meatier fare: a survivor of sexual assault in God\u2019s Creatures<\/a>, an animator struggling to complete a film after the death of her domineering mother in Stopmotion, part of a sinister folie a deux alongside James McEvoy\u2019s predator in Speak No Evil<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cIndependent cinema is where my heart is, but it gets trampled on constantly,\u201d Franciosi says. \u201cHonestly, any independent film that gets made now feels like a miracle. Independent films are where you find the strangest, most specific stories, and that\u2019s why I love acting.<\/p>\n

\"SpeakSpeak No Evil: James McEvoy and Aisling Franciosi in James Watkins’s film <\/p>\n

\u201cI do hope there\u2019s a shift away from constant spectacle and towards more human-scale stories. When I\u2019m watching an independent film, that\u2019s when I\u2019m most engaged. When I\u2019m watching a superhero film I\u2019ll just be thinking about technical stuff \u2013 like, \u2018That rain machine is turned up really high.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

In common with the Oscar hopeful Jessie Buckley<\/a>, Franciosi remains discreet about her home life. As we meet, she is pregnant and plans to take some time away from work. She has got better at downtime, she says.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Jessie Buckley\u2019s Golden Globes win sees odds shorten on best actress Oscar victoryOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have so little control in this industry, no matter how hard you try or how carefully you plan. I\u2019ve had to loosen my grip on what I thought my career should look like. I\u2019m pretty good at keeping myself busy. I don\u2019t like sitting around. I always give myself a project to do. I\u2019m happy in my own company as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to think \u2018I\u2019m never going to work again\u2019 between jobs. Now I realise that at some point I will work again. There are times when acting is frustrating. Things fall apart all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Franciosi seems to have endured those vicissitudes with aplomb. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m incredibly lucky,\u201d she says \u201cI\u2019m doing exactly what I dreamed of doing when I was a kid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Twinless is in cinemas from Friday, February 6th <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In person, Aisling Franciosi couldn\u2019t be more funny and charming. On screen, she\u2019s a very different entity. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311321,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[18,117,19,17,152058],"class_list":{"0":"post-311320","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-twinless"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115983416317522241","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}